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Review of Pleasantville (Randy Newman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate Randy Newman's more serious, dramatic
efforts of the 1990's, even if they're spiked with a few of his
trademark jazz and comedy cues.
Avoid it... on the original 1998 album if you value the careful narrative Newman developed for the score, the 2023 expansion loyally conveying that musical awakening.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Pleasantville: (Randy Newman) Writer and director
Gary Ross wrote several films of the 1990's that dealt with people
adapting to life in the wrong place, whether it be a kid as an adult in
Big, an ordinary man as a president in Dave, or two teens
stuck in an old television show in Pleasantville. Both the
premise and technology of Pleasantville were thought-provoking
and entertaining in a way that could deliver a socio-political message
while also yielding to a sappy, Hollywood-style storybook ending. In the
plot, two 1990's teens live in a dysfunctional household, and when a
television repairman gives them a special remote for their TV, the two
are transported back to the favorite show of the male teen. That show is
"Pleasantville," a black-and-white sitcom of the 1950's in which
everything's perfect and sterile, wholesome and neat. As the characters
begin to adapt to their new environment, living each day in the show
itself, they begin to help the make-believe community evolve into
independent thinkers. In so doing, the film reveals its technical
marvel: the special effect machine that slowly turns elements of the old
show from black-and-white into color. As people, animals, and things
make the transition, each with a specific reason, the film displays
brilliant colors and cinematography worthy of awards. Ross turned to
veteran composer Randy Newman for Pleasantville, and although the
songwriter had just come off of scores like Toy Story and A
Bug's Life that had reaffirmed his stereotypical role in Hollywood
children's music, fewer people recall that many of the composer's best
dramatic scores had already come by 1998. To a degree,
Pleasantville was a holdover from the days of The Natural
and Avalon, serious scores that still resonated long after.
Newman's straight dramatic writing in the later years of his career did
not frequently capture the same level of pure Americana and, more
importantly, convincing tones of darkness. What's interesting about
Pleasantville is that it bridges the two worlds within Randy
Newman's digital age production, with Ross calling upon the composer
with both the 1950's music and more restrained drama in mind. In the
end, Newman succeeded as well as could be expected at addressing those
disparate sides of the film.
The instrumental ensemble utilized by Newman is pretty conventional for the composer, strings and woodwinds carrying most of the dramatic weight while brass and percussion augment the wilder portions for the glory of 1950's innocence. A light choir also typical to Newman's career at the time accentuates that effect. To a degree, Pleasantville is a work compartmentalized by its various facets, Newman constructing motifs dedicated to certain emotional elements of the story but not really overlapping them to any significant level. Some of these ideas evolve with the colorized characters in the story while others remain predictably static to represent the persistence of some aspects in the show's original state. A theme song for the show itself is innocuous in its big jazz band and light choral performance, highlighted in full during "The Pleasantville Theme," reprised by solo brass ensemble in "The Sweater," and featured in fragments during lesser bumper-like recordings. The main theme of the movie is actually its "awakening" theme, a rather somber and pensive but yearning construct for strings that is revealed fully in "Real Rain," and its tender movements offer a practical application of the location's goodness to the two visiting characters. Newman applies the theme as accompaniment for the literal colorization of certain concepts, the idea shifting to woodwinds in "Waking Up" and cementing its dramatic impact at the conclusion in "Goodbye" and at either end of the closing credits assembly of prior cues. The "Real Rain" cue is particularly pivotal, as it carries two of the score's other dramatic themes as well. The first is an identity for the lead couple in the show, and its performance on flute in the middle of that cue carries on with less sorrow in "The Art Book," "No Umbrellas," and "A New Day." The other theme heard in "Real Rain," this time near its end, is Newman's more powerful identity for the influence of artwork and associated expression in the story. Reprised in "Nude Painting" but highlighting the score in "Mural," this idea is a somewhat transparent but nonetheless enjoyable transfusion of magic from Danny Elfman's finale for Edward Scissorhands, minus the choir. (This music had been moved by the director up in the narrative to replace Newman's "The Art Book" against the composer's wishes.) A snippet of this theme is also included in the end credits suite after a very brief reference to the melody for the lead couple in the show as well. Countering the more serious material in Pleasantville is the expected burst of joyous retro-romps that Newman affords the initially ridiculous and sterile 1950's setting. A Western-styled theme associated with the town in "School and Basketball," "Bud's a Hero," and the middle of "A New Day" hails back to the brass tones of Jerry Goldsmith's works in the genre and is far more convincing, ironically, than Newman's own score for Maverick not long before. The last of those cues shifts the idea nicely to strings and woodwinds to give it a weightier Americana feel. He also alters that sound for some more traditional John Philip Sousa style of marching in "Together," a brief nod towards comedy (not used in the film) that joins the outward big-band swing spirit of "Get Ready" near the start of the story. A lighter, more humorous variant of the same general idea follows the early mystery environment in "We're Stuck (The Breakfast Scene)" and supplies piano in Toy Story-heavy comedy duties. This same motif transfers this funny, lazy rhythm to a loungey personality alongside trademark Newman "la-la" female vocals with the kind of snazzy zip that Elfman would borrow in Meet the Robinsons almost a decade later. Aside from these diversions, though, the score is quite serious. In these passages, Newman takes few chances, with some of the darker hues in "Burning the Books" and "Punch" presenting little more than an interesting deviation from the composer's typically upbeat charge. One moment that requires special appreciation is the female orgasm cue, "In the Bath," a self-discovery moment that leads a Thomas Newman-styled woodwind rhythm and the light choir to a gorgeous crescendo of almost science-fiction proportions for a touch over overplayed humor. When Newman steps his music forward to the forefront of the film, the rewards in Pleasantville are remarkable, though there is still some filler material to contend with. The original 31-minute album from Varèse Sarabande was likely sufficient in length, though it is badly out of chronological order. The label followed with a 2023 expansion that includes the full 45-minute film presentation, the end credits assembly, and a number of alternate cues. The score is strong enough to sustain this better narrative experience, but some listeners will be fine with the prior product. Neither product contains the movie's songs, which were placed on a separate commercial album at the time of the film's release. In the end, Newman's music assisted the awakening in the movie immensely while also providing just enough of his trademark cheer for comedy, a notable balancing act. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1998 Varèse Album:
Total Time: 31:40
2023 Varèse Album: Total Time: 65:19
* previously unreleased ** contains previously unreleased material
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1998 album contains no information about the
score. The text font on the back of the its packaging is extremely
difficult to read. The 2023 album features notes about both the score
and film, including a list of performers.
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1999-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Pleasantville are Copyright © 1998, 2023, Varèse Sarabande, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/19/99 and last updated 1/31/24. |
